EVANSTON, Ill. — Against Syracuse last
weekend, Northwestern struggled on the draw, fell behind early and
forced far too many shots and passes. On Friday evening, the
Wildcats fixed all of those problems to defeat Penn State 11-3 at
Lakeside Field.

"Our main focus was just staying calm and staying poised and not
forcing any shots like we did against Syracuse. I think it worked
really well for us," senior attacker Erin Fitzgerald said. "We
really worked the ball around and worked together. There was really
no rushing the ball. Just taking it step by step and taking it play
by play."

Heading into their marquee matchup on the shore of Lake
Michigan, the Nittany Lions had never scored fewer than nine goals
in a game all season long — Penn State scored just three
goals on Friday.

"We were able to get out there and put some pressure on them and
take them out of their offense," Northwestern coach Kelly Amonte
Hiller said, "and really shake them up out there and make them play
a little faster and it seemed to work in terms of keeping their
score totals down."

Nittany Lions coach Missy Doherty said that her team struggled
in its first encounter with a truly aggressive defense.

"Our young players are still getting used to a lot of different
things and Northwestern gives you that coming-at-you defense and
that's pretty rare for Division I," Doherty said. "We've played
against a lot of defenses that sit back and we've gotten used to
how to move them and score, and now thankfully they have another
experience of a team pressuring us out so in the future we can
handle those situations better."

Though sophomore midfielder Tatum Coffey was able to maneuver
around the field, Penn State was unable to set up strong chances
for leading scorers Maggie McCormick and Mackenzie Cyr, who
mustered just two shots between them.

Northwestern didn't waste any time finding the back of the net
against Penn State. Fitzgerald scored a minute in, firing from 15
feet out. The Nittany Lions were then able to crack the Wildcats'
pressure by skirting the double team and flinging a pass over the
drawn out defense to senior attacker Molly Fernandez, who fired an
uncontested shot into the back of the net, but the Wildcats
responded with five straight goals, keeping the Nittany Lions off
of the scoreboard for the next 26:03.

Though the Wildcats played the possession game to perfection in
the second half, they still attacked the net, as senior midfielder
Taylor Thornton and junior midfielder Kate Macdonald scored goals
just 25 seconds apart in the penultimate minute of the game.

"Just play the full 60 minutes," Fitzgerald said. "We weren't
trying to jam it down their throats. We were just going to keep
playing our game and staying focused for the full game and then
afterwards we can take a little rest until Sunday."

Fitzgerald finished the night with four goals, a vast
improvement from her performance against the Orange, in which she
forced several shots.

"After that game, we really broke it down and Kelly made a point
to tell us to just stay calm and just chip away," Fitzgerald said,
"and we did that and I think we did a really great job of
that."

The Wildcats were also far improved on the draw, taking 10 of
16. Both teams were highly competitive on the draw, with very few
clean sweeps, but Northwestern won the majority of the 50-50 balls
to allow them to control the battle for time of possession.

"That was a focus for us," Amonte Hiller said. "I'm glad that we
did that and Penn State is a pretty good team in regards to 50-50
balls and draw controls, they're very athletic and very speedy, so
I was very happy with our performance there tonight."

The Wildcats have now won 14 straight against their conference
rivals, with the Nittany Lions' last win coming in 2003.